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VoL XXXII. 



JULY 15, 1904. 



No. 14 



Editor York and wife have been helping 

 us celebrate the glorious Fourth. 



A LOT OF FIGURES are g-iven by G. M. 

 Doolittle, page 638, that I counsel all begin- 

 ners to become familiar with — they'll come 

 handy, and he has given them in good 

 shape. 



If you want a bed of beautiful blue 

 fi >wers resembling heliotrope, on which 

 the bees shall tumble over each other, it is 

 not yet too late to sow phacelia tanacetifo- 

 lia. Otto Luhdorff, Visalia, Cal., adver- 

 tised seeds in Gleanings. 



Bees trying to supersede their queen are 

 supposed to "supply the queen larvse with 

 with mjre royal honey," page 659. What's 

 "royal honey"? [The phrase in question 

 should have been "edited," before it went 

 to the printers, so as to read " royal food." 

 It was overlooked. — Ed.] 



The list of fruits given by A. I. Root, 

 p. 664, is enough to make one's mouth wa- 

 ter; but one thing you omitted, friend Root, 

 and I wish Mrs. Root and you were here to 

 enjoy strawberry shortcake with us. The 

 crop of that delightful culinary compound 

 is fine this year. 



In the discussion as to Hoffman frames, 

 some talk as if it were a controversy be- 

 tween self- spacing and loose-hanging 

 frames. By no means. I would not like to 

 give up self-spacing frames, but it would 

 be hard to induce me to use closed-end or 

 partly closed-end frames. [But the Hoff- 

 man certainly comes in for a large share of 

 attention, for it is the most generally used 

 of all the self-spacing type of frames. — Ed.] 



W. L. CoGGSHALL, p. 662, has never seen 

 frames without bottom end staples taken 



out without maiming bees, unless it took 5 

 or 6 minutes to a hive. All in locality, Bro. 

 Coggshall; come out here and you'll see it 

 in a fourth of that time, and without any 

 jarring of the bees that the end staples 

 cause, making them cross, and making 

 queens hide. [Our experience is the same 

 as the doctor's.— Ed.] 



So GLYCERINE is not a reliable preventive 

 of candying, page 639. Glad of it; would 

 rather be able to say that there's nothing 

 in honey but honey. On page 660 the use of 

 glycerine is advised. You have my gra- 

 cious permission to retract, Mr. Editor. 

 [All right, doctor, we stand corrected. We 

 do not believe in the principle of putting 

 any thing into honey, even though the thing 

 put in may be much more expensive than 

 honey. We are glad that the glycerine has 

 failed, as it certainly has.— Ed.] 



Outdoor feeding allows the stronger 

 colonies to get the lion's share. 'All 

 right," says C. E. Woodward, p. 661, " all 

 you have to do then is to draw combs of 

 feed from the strong for the weak." But 

 look here, friend W., I'm not away off by 

 myself in Cuba, like you, and I'd get into 

 trouble if I were to draw combs from the 

 strong colonies in my neighbors' hives. [In 

 other words, you mean that, if you used 

 open-air feeders, you would feed your 

 neighbors' bees as well as your own. Here 

 again the question of locality plays a very 

 important part in the matter; but I do be- 

 lieve that, where one owns all the bees 

 within a mile and a half or two miles, he 

 can, if he is an expert bee keeper, practice 

 outdoor feeding with great economy of la- 

 bor; and then if the strong get too much, he 

 can even things up later on. — Ed.] 



Mr. Editor, you want Mr. Aitkin to dis- 

 pense with quilts and cloths so the bees 

 will seal down the covers, p. 648. But don't 

 those quilts and cloths help protect from 

 the hot sun? A cover with a dead- air space 

 would be the thing. [Instead of using 

 quilts and cloths I would use what is far 

 better — shade- boards, or, better still, double 

 covers, then it would not be necessary to 



